Salt Lake Tribune: "Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA"

One thousand fully-trained firefighters have been gathered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Atlanta to... do public relations?

Apparently so. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the firefighters are spending their time drinking beer and sitting through eight-hour training sessions in order to better hand out FEMA's phone number to disaster victims far from the scene of destruction.

'There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're sending them out to hand out a phone number,' an Oregon firefighter said. 'They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day [of FEMA training] was a waste.'

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.

The kicker?

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

A team of fifty firefighters, chomping at the bit to save lives, and the most important use the Bush administration has for them is to be a human backdrop for the president's photo op? That's getting mighty close to the most disgusting thing I've heard in a long time...

Thoughts on Hurricane Katrina

I'm really at a loss here. I've been reading the news and listening to the reports out of New Orleans, and finding myself in the same disbelieving stupor that washed over me in the hours and days following the terrorist attacks, nearly four years ago. Like most people, I can scarcely believe that a disaster of this magnitude can come to pass in this nation - not that the weather could lash out at us, but that so many people could be left for so long without any help at all.

The most painful part? Despite what the President has said, this was not an unexpected event at all. Scientists and engineers have predicted with scary precision almost every last detail of this horror for years - the New Orleans newspaper even published an award-winning series on just such a scenario a few years back. Everyone (except the president) seems to have known that a storm like this could - and WOULD - happen someday, and that the effects we're seeing would be a likely outcome. Why on earth wasn't anyone ready, then?

One thing that has really cheesed me off in all this (and it is admittedly a small thing) is how obscenely long it's taken George Bush to get his presidential butt down to the scene of the disaster. I really want to know - what the hell was he doing these four days that was more important than him being present to those people? He needs to say, and he needs to say in a hurry. Was he working like a fiend, burning the midnight oil to cash in every possible politcal chip, in an all-out effort to bring aid to the stricken cities? We'd all feel better knowing that if it's true. I really hate to be negative, but a 35-minute fly-over in Air Force One is an insufficient response by the president in the early hours of this catastrophe. The man was on vacation in the next state over, for God's sake!

I don't care for George Bush (does it show?), but the fact is that the President of the United States is a powerful symbol, and his presence at the scene of a disaster is a desperately needed ray of hope for the victims. It's a sign that their plight is known right up to the highest powers in the land, and that help is on the way. It's a human connection in a moment when every rescue and relief operation seems to be fouled by confusion and bureaocratic red tape. In moments of calamity, the president's greatest power isn't to wrangle congresspeople - it's to be a visible sign of hope. Think of Rudy Giuliani in the days after September 11, and you'll know I'm right. This president hasn't shown any of the courage or strength of leadership that Giuliani did. He should have been on the ground in New Orleans on Monday, and appearing in public as frequently as possible after that.

More hopeful is the response of Americans to the needs. Although I don't believe we have been roused to deliver the kind of aid we sent in the wake of the Asian tsunami yet, it is encouraging to see organizations like Thrivent offering gift-matching programs. At HurricaneHousing.org, Americans have offered more than 78,000 beds in their homes, free of charge, to refugees who are in need of shelter. Within 100 miles of Litchville, I count available beds for more than 100 people - including three here in my parsonage. Whether anyone will come this far north I can't say, but it encourages me to know that there are many people willing to provide shelter if only we can get the people of New Orleans and other stricken areas out.

Bishop Rick Foss informed the pastors in this synod that a fund has been begun by the bishop of the synod that includes New Orleans. It is intended to provide aid to clergy, whose ministries will be direly needed, but who will face weeks or months with no income. A similar fund was established in our synod in 1997, following the massive flooding on the Red River and overland. Eventually Rick expects that there will be "mission trips" organized to provide assistance, but clearly those efforts will need to wait until it is safe and helpful for volunteers to be present.

I plan on talking about aid for victims Sunday morning at both churches, and to provide forms for our parishioners to join Thrivent. A $10 membership means a 50% increase in any gift they give to one of four Lutheran disaster relief organizations - it is a generous offer, and we need to make sure it's maxed out.

This has been a hard week, and I doubt that there will be any easy ones for some time to come. Even being about as far removed from the disaster as one can be without leaving the United States, I feel as though the wind has been knocked out of me every time I read about the chaos down south. Please continue in your prayers for the victims of this disaster, and give generously at every opportunity you have.

NYT: "Life in the Bottom 80 Percent"

Important enough to be reprinted in its entirety:

Editorial
Life in the Bottom 80 Percent
Economic growth isn't what it used to be. In 2004, the economy grew a solid 3.8 percent. But for the fifth straight year, median household income was basically flat, at $44,389 in 2004, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That's the longest stretch of income stagnation on record.

Economic growth was also no elixir for the 800,000 additional workers who found themselves without health insurance in 2004. Were it not for increased coverage by military insurance and Medicaid, the ranks of the uninsured - now 45.8 million - would be even larger. And 1.1 million more people fell into poverty in 2004, bringing the ranks of poor Americans to 37 million.

When President Bush talks about the economy, he invariably boasts about good economic growth. But he doesn't acknowledge what is apparent from the census figures: as the very rich get even richer, their gains can mask the stagnation and deterioration at less lofty income levels.

This week's census report showed that income inequality was near all-time highs in 2004, with 50.1 percent of income going to the top 20 percent of households. And additional census data obtained by the Economic Policy Institute show that only the top 5 percent of households experienced real income gains in 2004. Incomes for the other 95 percent of households were flat or falling.

Income inequality is an economic and social ill, but the administration and the Congressional majority don't seem to recognize that. When Congress returns from its monthlong summer vacation next week, two of the leadership's top priorities include renewing the push to repeal the estate tax, which affects only the wealthiest of families, and extending the tax cuts for investment income, which flow largely to the richest Americans. At the other end of the spectrum, lawmakers have stubbornly refused to raise the minimum wage: $5.15 an hour since 1997. They will also be taking up proposals for deep budget cuts in programs that ameliorate income inequality, like Medicaid, food stamps and federal student loans.

They should be ashamed of themselves.